page_title: Union Island Airport
section_title: Overview
hierarchical_section_title: Union Island Airport / Overview
caption_attribution_description: English: Getting to Petit St Vincent island in the Grenadines.
context_page_description: Union Island Airport is the airport serving Union Island, Grenadines Parish, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. It is located about 0.25 miles from the town of Clifton, one of the country's main tourist centers and a major destination for charter leisure flights during the winter holiday season and easter, for "Easterval" celebration. The airport serves as a focus city for flag carrier SVG Air and features flights to several short-haul regional destinations. It is the southmost airport of St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
  The airport, which currently handles only turboprop aircraft services mainly light regional aircraft with domestic flights to and from St. Vincent and some of the Grenadines and regular scheduled and shared charter international flights to Barbados, Carriacou, Grenada, St. Lucia and Martinique.
context_section_description: Union Island Airport is well known for having a difficult approach due to surrounding terrain, prohibiting certain aircraft types from operating at the airport. Landings at the airport are dramatic to experience and technically demanding for pilots. However, Union Island Airport is not quite as dramatic as Saba or St. Barts, but it does have a notable "over-the-hill-and-dive" approach and descent from the west, the usual direction in the easterly trade winds. The main approach into the airport is Runway 08, small GA planes occasionally fly a tight pattern inside the hills, but this requires a sharpish turn to final approach close to the ground and overflies the inhabited area more than the Clifton town people probably prefer. The airport's surroundings leave little room for error or mistake on the behalf of the pilots – with nearby hills and sea at the end of the short runway. The approach to this airport could be considered good practice for pilots before flying to Saint Barthélemy Airport.
  Union Island's airport is open year-round for arrivals and departures from dawn to dusk. Runways at the Union Island Airport are modern and paved but not lit so there are no departures after dusk. You may expect light turbulence on approach when winds exceed 10 knots.
  The runway of the existing airport was 640 m (2.100 ft) long and 12 m wide with a 100 m (330 ft) section built on land reclaimed in shallow waters. The condition of the runway pavement had seriously deteriorated. Due to obstruction by hills, the western approach slope was about 20 per cent.
  Preliminary design calls for two solutions with extended new runway of 762 m (2,500 ft) and improved approach slope, taxiway, apron, aircraft parking area, pavements, terminal building, access road and seaward shore protection.
  Under consideration of the Dornier DO 228-200 as reference aircraft, KOCKS CONSULT GMBH provided the following services for the improvement of Union Island Airport:
  Field Investigations, Preliminary Design and Environmental Impact Study.
  Final Design and Tender Documents.
  Supervision of Construction.
  The airport was closed for two weeks for the first phase of rehabilitation work on May 4, 2009. Under the rehabilitation program, the runway, taxiway and apron areas were re-surfaced, and the markings in these areas were refreshed.
  On December 5, 2009, CCA Limited commenced works on the second phase of the Union Island Airport rehabilitation project and within two weeks it was successfully completed. The project works consisted of placing armour stones (sea defense) at the east-end of the runway, as the shoreline had been damaged by a previous hurricane.
  After the upgrade, the number of passengers and aircraft movements had substantially increased to 350 and 70 respectively per day during the peak season. Holiday villages and hotels provide aquatic sport facilities for windsurfers, kitesurfers, yachtsmen, scuba divers and snorkelers. Union Island is known for its watersports activities. Tourist attractions in the Grenadines such as Tobago Cays Marine Park have attracted service as well.
caption: Getting to Petit St. Vincent via Union Island Airport and private boat transfer.
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